Marathon - Feb 11

February 10 – Marathon

Well, we’re still in Mararthon. We’re hoping there will be a weather window on Thursday or Friday for us to get to the Bahamas, but it’s not looking as good today as it did yesterday. Time will tell. In the meantime we are doing our final provisioning. We have been keeping busy here in Marathon, and there never seems to be enough time in the day. A week ago Saturday there was a marine flea market and Dave found our exact depthsounder/knotmeter rig brand new in a box – this was something we’d been looking for, as sometimes the display doesn’t work on ours. Anyway he was able to get the whole thing for around $100 which was awesome!! He came home and had the display replaced in about 10 minutes and now we have replacements for both of the thru-hull fittings for depth and speed in case one fails. On Sunday we went to the Dockside Bar/Restarant to listen to a band in the afternoon. The highlight was a 91-year-old man that came on stage and played an awesome piece on the trumpet and then sang a song. He was great! It was hard to believe he was 91. That evening we went to the marina where they had a TV projector to watch the super bowl. It was a great game - we were a little disappointed that the Cardinals didn’t win, but they certainly gave it a good shot. It was a far closer game than we expected. There was a huge storm that blew through here last Monday night. There were wind gusts up to 40 knots and there was lots of thunder and lightning. Apparently there was hail in some parts of Marathon! That doesn’t happen very often! On Tuesday the kids went to home-school PE (physical education) that is put on by the town. On Wednesday we went to the pot-luck at the marina but forgot to take plates, so that didn’t work too well! It was a cold and wet trip in the dinghy as the harbour was really rough. There are often about 20 kids there, ranging in age from 3 – 18. On Friday we rented a car and went to Key West. It was a long day with lots of walking an rip-sticking. It is a neat place to visit, but there certainly is no need to go and spend a week there on a boat! On Saturday we drove up to Miami and Fort Lauderdale and did some final provisioning at Walmart and got more of Rudder’s prescription dog food. On Sunday, Annie went to the Art Festival with Penny off Carpe Diem. I took Kristen down to the Turtle Hospital where we learned about all the sea turtles that live in the Keys and some of the injuries and diseases they get. They had about 40 sea turtles in the hospital. About a dozen are permanent residents, but most will be released back into the wild. Dave ran some errands with the car. Yesterday morning Dave returned the car and did some laundry and the kids did their schoolwork. In the afternoon Annie met a friend (Kashara) in the park and I took Kristen back to the Turtle Hospital to find out about a turtle that we had heard was tangled in some fishing gear on the reef. Fortunately it was fine and they had been able to get freed up. We met Dave at West Marine and then went back to get Annie. It was really wet travelling in the dinghy (again). Today I went up the mast to free up the Main halyard that had slipped out of its pulley and to bring down the anchor light so we can see if we can get an LED replacement so it doesn’t use so much power. We have more errands to run this afternoon and tomorrow, and then hopefully we’ll be out of here on Thursday or Friday.
Once (If) we get the Bahamas, there will be less access to the internet, so I’m not sure how often I will be updating the blog – I will try to do it every couple of weeks.